War and Pieces Act 2

Moving on, with a new system

Colossi

Though becoming a Colossus is primarily a sanctification and self-reflective process, and the result is a symbolic one, there are significant mechanical benefits to becoming a Colossus as well… namely, access to unique charms, and increases to stat caps.

Requirements: To initiate the process of becoming a Colossus, a character must meet all the following requirements.

Either at least 100 years old or having undergone significant, life-changing revelations (Plot)

A Cast die of d12

A Body die of d8

A Speed die of d8

A Mind die of d8

A Will die of d8

Enough experience banked to raise Body to d12 if it is not already there (characters need not already be physically large to initiate the process, but becoming a Colossus dramatically increases their size regardless)

Having met all these requirements, the character will be out of commission for 5-6 months, undergoing reconstruction as a Colossus. When they emerge, even they will be surprised at their new form.

Upon becoming a Colossus, a character gains the following benefits:

Their Cast die increases to d12+d4, and can be raised up to 2d12 with experience (though doing so requires Plot and time)

The Giant gift, free of cost

Ability caps are increased to equal the character’s Cast die (meaning the character can increase Body to d12+d4, or raise Melee to that level without the benefit of gifts)

Access to gifts with the Colossus keyword, which cannot be taken otherwise

Holy shit you’re a 12-15 foot tall super-awesome giant battle robot!

Colossus Gifts:

Extra [Slot] (Colussus, Manifold, Trait): Through transhuman body modifications and increased capacity, characters can add an extra slot of any kind, though logic still applies (no hands without extra arms, feet without extra legs, etc.). For some slots, this means an extra appendage, such as an extra arm (an arm without a hand ends in a non-manual claw) or leg. For slots such as Brain or Spine, rather than adding extra parts of that type, the character’s increased size simply allows additional gifts to be socketed in the body parts that already exist. Technically, a character can build multiple heads through purchase of Extra Brain, Extra Eyes, Extra Ears, Extra Face, Extra Mouth, Extra Jaw, Extra Neck, and presumably things like Danger Sense and Keen Eyes representing their extra sensory organs. However, the extra head does not have its own soulgem or its own personality and simply speaks at the same time in the same voice as the character, leading to a bit of an echo.

Tactical Drone-Bay Deployment (Colossus, Manifold, Special, Plot): Sometimes, being a Colossus is difficult. You’re certainly not able to fit into most buildings. You might have some difficulty infiltrating. And for certain promiscuous Moonsilvers, it can be awfully hard to have intimate company over when you’re ten feet taller than they are. For this, Colossi can deploy a conveniently Champion-sized, Champion-shaped drone body, complete with a dummy soulgem and a number of the character’s charms.

(X) Special: by exhausting this gift, the character can deploy a drone that resembles their unmodified Champion body before their dramatic transformation. While in this body, the Alchemical must disembody their consciousness, though they can switch back and forth through a few minutes of focus, leaving the drone catatonic or returning to it. This leaves the body somewhat vulnerable, so most Alchemicals take care to have a safehouse where they can remain while on deployment, or leave their body back at the Vats for safekeeping. The drone, by default, has no slots and no slot-requiring gifts, though it possesses a copy of all slot-less gifts the character possesses (unless those gifts require other gifts that require slots, i.e. Keystone gifts). During the creation of the drone, the character can choose to assign any of their slots to the drone instead, making them inaccessable to the character and accessable to the drone. The drone cannot be equipped with any charms requiring stats higher than d12, and all skills and stats are likewise capped. The drone does not have the Giant gift, and is regularly human-sized… well, as human-sized as the character used to be. This gift can be refreshed in one of two ways. Either the character can simply have the drone reattach and integrate into the Colossus body, in which case it is ready for deployment again after a Respite, or the drone can be destroyed. In this case, the character requires 4 months to build another one internally, during which they must have access to a Vats complex. Once the drone is rebuilt, it can be deployed starting at the beginning of the next chapter.

Having a drone destroyed is fairly traumatic, and the Colossus is Sick and Hurt when they awaken in their body, and must roll Will+Endurance vs. 3 or have Mind decrease by 1 die level until the drone is rebuilt. If the Colossus body is destroyed while the drone is out, the character dies a horrible, agonizing death as their soul is ripped from the dummy soulgem and dragged through the aether back to their corpse and real soulgem.

Extra purchases of this gift allow the character to have more than one drone at the same time. However, they all share the same pool of body slots, and a character can only control one at a time, meaning they must store the offline drones somewhere safe. If more than one drone is destroyed, the effects are not stacked. Characters are still sick and hurt if they recovered before the most recent destruction, but they need not roll again or lose more Mind dice if they already lost one. If they managed to keep it together after the first, repeated “deaths” may still traumatize them.